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‘I am a Zionist,’ says Biden at Hanukkah event, promises continued military assistance to Israel (www.timesofisrael.com)

submitted 11 months ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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[–] Telorand@reddthat.com -5 points 11 months ago (10 children)

The problem is it's not as simple as that. Hamas and Israel are at war. That's an undisputed fact.

Israel is the US's ally. Also an undisputed fact.

Joe Biden is an old politician and Catholic from an era where "Zion" is synonymous with Israel. Calling himself a Zionist, I suspect, is like calling himself a Christian with different words. But "Zionist" doesn't mean the same thing anymore, and I bet he doesn't fully grasp what he's identifying with in a modern sense.

Additionally, and this is the political muck of it, were Israel's ally. Typically, you honor your alliances. I don't know why we're so gung ho about the middle east and Israel, but alliances seem to mean something to heads of state, even if you don't agree with the ally's tactics. I've never been a President, so I don't know what the political calculus is here, but I seriously doubt that genocide is Biden's goal.

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

Israel does provide the US with strategic and geopolitical advantages. I would be okay if the US just came out and said that it doesn't care about human rights or war crimes, the issue for many of us is the clear hypocrisy in the response between Ukraine and Palestine. Biden and the Democratic Party should also accept that many people in the US care about human rights and Palestine.

but I seriously doubt that genocide is Biden’s goal

I don't. https://theintercept.com/2021/04/27/biden-israeli-invasion-lebanon/

Begin said he was shocked at how passionately Biden supported Israel’s invasion when Biden “said he would go even further than Israel, adding that he’d forcefully fend off anyone who sought to invade his country, even if that meant killing women or children.” Begin said, “I disassociated myself from these remarks,” adding: “I said to him: No, sir; attention must be paid. According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war. Sometimes there are casualties among the civilian population as well. But it is forbidden to aspire to this. This is a yardstick of human civilization, not to hurt civilians.” The comments were striking from Begin, who had been notorious as a leader of the Irgun, a militant group that carried out some of the worst acts of ethnic cleansing accompanying the creation of the state of Israel, including the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre.

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